I was involved in a slight parking spot stealing altercation yesterday, and although I felt justified in stealing the spot, it perhaps wasn't necessary for me to flip the other driver off as I did it. My bad. Anyway, my moral musings have led to the much more interesting topic of parking spot stealing in the context of cleared snow, which I will post my thoughts on in a bit. Focus: Anything car related is always good for some stories and overly polarized opinions. What are your thoughts on spot stealing and all that it entails?
In my opinion, intentional spot stealing is rarely justified, and is just an example of the lack of courtesy and laziness that is all too prevalent in today's world. OK, that may be over dramatic, but I think it fits. Who couldn't stand to walk the length of the parking lot instead of repeatedly circling the parking lot looking for any spot opening up regardless of who was there first and patiently waiting for the other car to exit. If you know this, and do it anyway, you are a jackass. My last spot stealing mishap was just a couple weeks ago. One thing to know is that I usually won't wait for a spot, I'll just drive to the back of the lot and park in an already open one. However, like most places, we have gotten snow after snow, so about half of most parking lots are unusable due to huge heaps of snow. Add in the fact that we have had sub-zero temps, people haven't yet given up their New Year's Resolutions, and I get off work at 5 like 90% of the rest of the population, and it has made parking at the gym difficult to impossible. So I was waiting for a spot that was on the front side of the gym, and I was in one of the aisles leading up do it so it was pretty much right in front of me to the left, I had my turn signal on. I have no idea what the person was doing or why it took them so long to get in their car, but I sat there for at least 4-5 minutes. Long enough for me to call myself an idiot over and over again for waiting for a close spot (at the fucking gym too). But every time I was ready to drive off, the thought that they HAD to be almost done doing it is whatever it was they were doing, and if I did, there wasn't a guarantee that I would even find a far away spot in the lot. I was getting more and more annoyed by the second. So, after several minutes, they pull out, and as a courtesy I figure I will let the car who is driving in the lane in front pass and then I will take my hard earned spot. And she pulls right in of course. I was so annoyed. Then I shamed myself further by rolling down my window and letting the girl know that I had waited 5 minutes for the spot she just rolled up into. She apologized and said she thought I was turning. Honestly, I think in her case it was an honest mistake and she had no idea, and I could tell that she felt bad. Then I just threw a little temper tantrum and drive off on home without working out. I was so pissed at myself for letting something so stupid get to me and being aggressive enough to feel the need to let the other (innocent) person know about it. I would like to hear why you felt your situation was justifiable (with a flip off too boot!).
Each semester someone new in our building has learned that if you steal our assigned, numbered parking spaces, we will chain one of our pickups to your car and drag it across the parking lot. We have tried calling tow services to take the vehicles, but none of them apparently want to work on weekends. There are fucking guest parking spots, but apparently it's too much hassle to drive around the building.
Normally I'm like you in that I'll park fairly far away and then walk, it's no big deal for me to do some bipedal locomotion. In this instance though it was downtownish in a place I'd never been, couldn't find street parking and there was a public garage. The garage was perfectly linear, in that you go in, follow one path to the top, turn around and follow the same path out. I had already gone to the top, which was totally full, and was coming back down when a car was starting to pull out. The other driver was coming the opposite direction, and by definition had just entered the garage. So my first justification was that I had been "in line" for a spot in this garage well longer than she had, and was only taking this particular spot because there were no free ones further up. My second justification was fuck her, I'm selfish and I don't care anymore, which to be honest is the justification I gave heavier weight to. The finger was because as I pulled in she honked at me, which where I'm from translates directly to "fuck you" and my finger was thus "well fuck you too." It was pure instinct, which in retrospect I probably shouldn't have done. In any event, her boyfriend got out of the car and started calling me "ese" which I've found is what Hispanic people call whiteys that they want to intimidate by leveraging the subtle racism said whitey possesses. I'm not totally defending my actions, but in thinking about it I did find it interesting just how entitled we feel to property that is in no way shape or form our own. In her mind I had stolen something that was rightfully hers, despite it only being "hers" through virtue of a small bit of luck with regard to timing.
Parking garages, in this case my university's parking garages. When I was still in school there were five main parking garages that students could use. If you had either early classes, 8:00-9:00 a.m. or late classes, 6:30 p.m. an onward you wouldn't have a problem. Any time in between you would always have an issue getting parking, but by far the worst time to find a parking spot was noon. In my last semester I had one class at 1:30 that I was a T.A for, so being late was not an option. Now just to give you an idea of how bad it was in one of these garages. There was always, and I mean always, a constant stream of cars circling the garage waiting for a person to hopefully exit one of the stair exits as they were passing by. There were usually a car or two stopped in front of a door and just waiting for a person to exit, and by doing this caused massive block ups because people couldn't get around them because of the constant stream of cars circling. I've seen people t-bone other cars because they saw a person walking to their car and didn't notice the vehicle around the corner waiting. Anyways, as the semester went on I would end up leaving my house and hour early just to look for a spot, I lived fifteen miles from the nearest bus stop and for a time, I would drive my car near the stop, park, and get on the bus from there. Although once my car got towed I stopped doing that. What I ended up doing, which pissed almost everyone off (I knew this because more then a few would roll down their windows and used some variation of "fuck" and "you") and added a couple more key scratches to my p.o.s. car was to back my car in the corner by the staircase door, giving me a full view of the inside of that parking garage level. So when someone walked through the door to get to their car I was literally right there and able to immediately follow them. My new strategy let me get a spot usually within the first ten minutes of getting into the garage, but at the cost of fucking over all the people circling and those sitting near the door. I rationalized my actions by saying I actually had shit I needed to go to and didn't have time to circle the garage like a vulture. Everyone else could stand to be a little late to the gym or their Introduction to Sociology class. The one good thing that came from all the years of trying to find parking at college is that now I always leave 20-30 minutes earlier than I normally would, just in case parking sucks.
Once the turn signal is on, the open spot is taken by law of God. THAT IS THE RULE. Stealing a parking spot no matter how busy the place is you're at is curbside behavior. Steal the spot from me when my signal is on, and I wait until you walk into the store before I ride-jump on your back bumper over and over until it sets your loud-ass car alarm off, therefore pissing off every single person outside for the entire duration you are in the store. I have done this at least 15 times, and do not regret it and refuse to apologize in any way.
See it's this attitude I don't get. While parking you are either on public property, or private property that isn't yours. In either case you are in no position to either claim anything as your own (outside of your actual car) or make or enforce rules of any kind. I mean sure you can call the other person and asshole or feel any negative emotion toward them you like, but this aggrieved attitude of having been the victim of some personal violation is beyond me. Ironically enough, not twenty minutes later I was waiting in line for the bathroom in a restaurant when I got blatantly "bathroom jacked" by a guy who walked right past me as the current occupant was coming out. I barely batted an eye, because fuck it, it's not even my bathroom. Again, this is the first time I've ever spot stolen, and generally I follow normal etiquette just as a go along to get along type thing, but I'm just amazed at the level of ire it brings out in other people. In a country where we teach women to yell "fire" instead of "rape," everyone suddenly becomes Wyatt Earp when it comes to mundane breaches of parking etiquette.
Do you cut in line in the grocery store? Because the same logic applies....but you would clearly be a dick in that case. No one's claiming you violated the law or anything. But there's certain norms of social nondickitude that make modern life functional.
I've never seen someone say "This guy cut me in line at the grocery store, so I followed him to the parking lot and keyed his car." But a quick google search will turn up hundreds of "I keyed his car" "I slashes his tires" "I pissed on his door handles" "I buried his car in snow" "I smashed his windshield" or "I cut his brake line" stories in response to parking grievances.
What about "This guy cut in front of me in line at the grocery store, so I passive-aggressively tried to bore a hole in the back of his head with my pretend laser-eyes"?
Go for it. As Omar would say "it's all in the game." But there's something about parking (and to be honest road rage in general) that makes people justify moving way outside the realm of "the game," treating a breach of etiquette as if it were a personal assault.
What you perceive as ire in people may be civil responsibility to other people: they feel it is their job to call an asshole out to hopefully prevent them from doing anything like that in the future. Sure it might seem like the person doing it is bitter. You may even avoid confrontation by not doing anything, but by letting people get away with thinking the unwritten laws(ie lines, common courtesy, being quite in a movie theater etc) don't apply to them makes our society more dysfunctional as a whole. Of course to what degree you do it is very subjective, as killing said person(and to a lesser extent keying/slashing tires) is obviously overreaction but Crown Royal setting off someones car alarm is in the hazy area of a response.
I'm pretty sure it's legal to harvest the organs anybody that cuts in line at the bathroom if you're this close to shitting your pants.
If you're that close and someone cuts you in line, I think it's fair to shit on the spot where you stand and then tell management that they did it, but that's only because it's a bodily necessity.
I once went as House for Halloween, and naturally I had the cane, and I faked a limp. Most people didn't get the costume, and thought I was injured. I had been waiting in line for the men's bathroom at a bar, and finally it was my turn. I had to piss so fucking bad. As the guy ahead of me left two girls just started to walk into the men's room having not waited in line, cutting me. They weren't even in line for the women's bathroom. So, being in character for House, I put my cane up in the door way in front of them, and held it firmly so they couldn't push it out of the way, told them: "NO" and walked into the bathroom ahead of them. Sadly, it made me feel like a big man.
I fucking hate assholes who steal car spots. Looking at it sensibly (and with my twisted logic), Aetius was in the right. You enter car parks like that through one entrance in order. First come, first served. So, it was his spot and the woman should have realised that. Other times, putting your indicator (turn signal, whatever...) designates that you have seen the space and are lining up for it. Or, you're the first in line waiting for whoever is in it to move out. It's an indication to everyone what you're doing and why you're there. My spot at work gets jacked regularly. We have two spaces, each with a prominent reserved sign with our company name on it, covered with shade cloth (shade, especially at this time of year, is important). There's other offices around, and a child care centre downstairs. This means my spot regularly gets taken by mothers and other people's clients. It happened this morning. But, no passive aggressive nasty notes for me. I park the pricks in by putting my car across them and make them come up to my office. The guy this morning managed to get out because the person next to him left. Asshole.
In my youth, if you stole my spot; fingers, fists and your sisters' sexual preferences were all in play. Today, I am much more laid back. This also has nothing to do with the court ordered anger management classes. (True story). The way I see it now, the fight/argument isn't worth my time. You're not worth my time, Mr. Spot-Stealer. The exception to this rule is if I am with a woman. Then the fight is 'kinda' on, bitch. But here's the paradox boys; women hate when we fight. Yeah, if they are drunk they think it's cool, but 99% of the women out there despise this chest thumping. Most do not like our "he-man" fake bullshit. And I am not speaking about if the girls are insulted, spilled on, or pushed. All bets are off then. But no girl wants to be with an unprovoked K.Fed…or KIM. Trust me on this one. So for me, rage less and less, and laugh more and more. As the wise Mod says, "get off my lawn". But in return for that, I'll never walk on your lawn. Deal? Are we cool? Cool. Take care.
Not quite a parking story but similar: The other day I was driving down a four-lane road, in the right hand lane (left hand lane equivalent for you Americans - the lane that you're in if you want to turn across the oncoming lane). The traffic comes to a stop for a red light and as it does, the guy in front of me puts his indicator on to turn. I then notice two things: a) the oncoming traffic at the lights is backed up quite a while, implying that when the light turns green, this guy in front will be waiting at least a minute to turn, and b) there is a car in the through lane next to me, two behind him, and no more coming. I decide to leave about two car lengths in between me and the guy in front so that when traffic begins to flow, I can get into the other lane and continue on my merry way. Right before the light turns green though, some asshole in a 4WD behind me starts honking his horn. He wants me to move forward, despite being able to see from his tall 4WD, over my low Honda hatchback, that because he's also turning right he's going to have to wait for the traffic and the guy in front of me to turn, whether or not I'm there. When I heard his horn and saw him in the mirror I completely forgot about the traffic and just sat there, puzzled. I tried to figure out what was going through his head and failed. I STILL don't understand how the presence of a 20 foot gap in front of my car affected him in such a way that he felt the need to honk his horn at me not once, but several times, as I sat there waiting. When I was able to pull into the other lane, I did, but slowly enough for him to accelerate and then brake as hard as he could next to me. I had to see him, I needed to solve the puzzle. I had so many questions. He looked angry and gave me a "Don't you know how to drive?" look. I flipped him off while looking him right in the eye, which is the first time I've ever flipped off a stranger, and even through my sunglasses and colourblindness I could see the shade of purple he turned. Finally it all made sense. He was just an asshole. Unfortunately the whole incident amused me so much I think I'm going to be flipping off a lot more impatient people in the future.
One thing that I hate is people who will stand in a parking spot, saving it for their friend who's around the block. This happened to me Friday night when parking was very scarce due to a band playing downtown near the bars. Normally, I'll just forget about it, roll down my window and insult the person and find a new spot, but after having driven around for ten minutes Friday night, I wanted that damn spot. So I rolled down my window and told the large woman I was planning on parking in the spot she was standing in, and proceeded to begin the parallel parking process. She still refused to get out of the spot, so I had my girlfriend get out and walk to the police officer on the corner to tell him there was a pedestrian in the roadway blocking the flow of traffic. At this point, her husband came around the block and saw me trying to park, and as I was already halfway backed into the spot, he pulled in front of me, effectively trapping me in. He got out of his car looking to defend his fat wife's honor. When the police officer arrived, it happened to be a guy I knew well from when I worked downtown, he asked me what happened, I told him, and he quickly wrote the fat woman a ticket for pedestrian in the roadway, and asked me if I would like to file false imprisonment charges against the two. This quickly made fat husband apologetic, even offering to be me a few beers. I declined to charges and fatty's offer, got my parking spot, and wrote down the license plate in case my girlfriend's car had key marks on it when we left.
This is what I never understood. Why do idiots circle the parking lot for 15 minutes looking for a front row spot? By the time they find a spot, they could have parked 20' further away and already been damn near done with their shopping. I usually park toward toward the back of the parking lot. My truck is too big to squeeze into some of those little spaces and backing out can be a real pain in the ass if someone parks too close. On the odd occassion that I find a spot up front, if I see someone circling and following me I'll intentionally walk really slow. If that doesn't deter them, I'll stop to tie my shoe/check my receipt/etc. I will do everything I can to prevent that person from getting that spot. I've even gotten out of my truck (after starting it, putting it in reverse, and sitting there with my foot on the break for a bit) and walked back in to the store just to piss them off. Yeah, I can be a dick. I have nothing but time and I love wasting the time and raising the ire of pushy, impatient assholes.